Korea Industry December 2015

Korea: Industrial production contracts in December

December 30, 2015

In December, industrial production decreased 1.9% over the same month of the previous year, which came in below the 0.1% drop recorded in November but beat market expectations of a steeper 3.0% fall. According to the Korea National Statistics Office, December’s slump reflected a decline in the all-important manufacturing production. Meanwhile, the Statistics Office reported that the services, construction and public administration sectors experienced strong annual growth in December.

On a month-on-month basis, industrial production rose a seasonally-adjusted 1.3% in December, which contrasted the 2.1% decrease tallied in November. Annual average growth in industrial output decreased from minus 0.4% in November to minus 0.7% in December.

FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists expect industrial production to contract 0.8% in 2016, which is down 0.2 percentage points from last month’s forecast. For 2017, panelists expect industrial output to increase 1.8%.

Industrial production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity sectors decreased 6.0% in December compared to the same month last year, more than the revised 1.7% decrease in November (previously reported: -1.6% year-on-year).